Chrome Frame, Not Just for Internet Explorer

By looking at the code, it's obvious that the plugin is not limited to Internet Explorer. There's also a NPAPI plugin, which should work in browsers that support NPAPI: Firefox, Safari, Opera and other browsers. Here's a comment from one of the Chrome Frame files:

"ChromeFrameNPAPI: Implementation of the NPAPI plugin, which is responsible for hosting a chrome frame, i.e. an iframe like widget which hosts the the chrome window. This object delegates to Chrome.exe (via the Chrome IPC-based automation mechanism) for the actual rendering".

A post from the Chromium blog explained the purpose of Google's plugin: "With Google Chrome Frame, developers can now take advantage of the latest open web technologies, even in Internet Explorer. From a faster Javascript engine, to support for current web technologies like HTML5's offline capabilities and <canvas>, to modern CSS/Layout handling, Google Chrome Frame enables these features within IE with no additional coding or testing for different browser versions."

Instead of asking users to download a different browser, Google and other companies that develop complex web applications can ask users to install Google Chrome Frame. This way, Google Chrome runs invisibly inside another browser.

Eugh, why all this talk of HTML 5? I thought we moved on to XHTML ages ago... The W3C only took HTML 5 on because there'd be mutiny otherwise. As much as I find the video tag a good idea, I can't get enthusuastic about it when it's made by WHATWG. Surely it's not just me?

I totally agree with this. People didn't see it coming when Chrome Frame was released. If they can do it for IE , why can't they released for other browsers especially firefox who's the next contender considering it's getting slower and slower since the first day it was released (it can't handle n tabs opened at the same time, opera does it without problems)

This is awesome. I’ve started using the Universal IE6 CSS along with no JS for all versions of IE on any project I can myself. It’s such a pleasure to be able to just write code and not worry about IE. And if you stick to progressive enhancement IE users won’t be left out completely.

Look at all the great things you can do with HTML 5 without downloading a plugin! Oops, I mean look at all the great things you can do when you download a plugin...

Just to make it clear, I like Chrome a lot, but if one of the selling points of HTML 5 over Flash/Flex is that you can use the features without downloading a plugin, this seems to undercut that notion.

And regarding Chrome the only information sent to Google is search data (which is a given), all of the other information they collect you can opt-out of giving by clicking on a checkbox before installation.

@PinkHippoWell Microsoft say that they are working on some of HTML5 at the moment.I know they have localStorage ready (and actually have 10MB of storage, rather than the 5MB that has been suggested as the max size)

Let us all hope and pray that Web Workers and localStorage doesn't end up leading to IE becoming a botnet-hoster... we all know what they have been like with security in the past...

Chrome Frame is only a rendering engine, an open source engine built by Apple, so Chrome Frame on Safari is redundant.

Salimane, in your enthuasiasm to insult Firefox, you're not making any sense. Firefox's rendering engine has gotten only faster with every release and the rendering engine has nothing to do with having lots of tabs open which is controlled by the chrome of the browser.

The tag meta [http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="chrome=1;IE=8"] seems to be the best code for now. Gives IE8 'standards' mode rendering if there's no Chrome Frame installed, and Chrome Frame rendering if it is installed, regardless of IE version. You can see this in use at http://www.swhmrs.org.uk The main picture should be centered when CSS is properly implemented, so only renders wrong under IE7 or lower, as IE8 'standards' mode renders it right, as of course does Chrome Frame.

Well this seems good news. I wonder in how much time someone will make an addon for firefox like the ie-tab to render with safari/chrome´s engine. It´s always good to be able to test other browers engine without switching the browser. Anyway will Firefox load faster with safari/chrome rendering engine..? dude it

Salimane is just another opera fun angry with the worldBTW I have got nothing again Opera, rather that I don´t like it.

@Hugh Isaacs II No idea about that, I may check it out. Anyway I prefer SPware Iron, just hope they make updates more often.